Various wireless technologies (e.g., 3G, 4G, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), etc.) allow for the use of small, base stations, generally referred to herein as small cells (e.g., femto base stations or pico base stations in WiMAX or Home Node-B (HeNB), pico base stations or generically designated as small cell base stations in 3GPP LTE specifications). The user or a wireless service provider's technician installs the small cell in the user's home or office to improve the user experience of the local wireless coverage. The small cell's backhaul connection to the wireless service provider's network is provided via the user's network access (e.g., digital subscriber line (DSL)). The small cell operates in a similar wireless fashion (e.g., uses the same air interface protocol) to the wireless service provider's other base stations (e.g., macro base stations (mBSs) and/or relay stations). The small cell may allow for the handover from the mBS to the small cell to be accomplished without the user noticing (e.g., similar to the handover from one mBS to another). Small cells may be useful in machine to machine (M2M) communications that are engineered to communicate with little or no human support by offloading the main cell's traffic. M2M communications in large industrial or machine residential networks may require the connection of over 30,000 machine User Equipment (UE) devices per mBS. Small cells may be able to assist in handling excess data traffic, including M2M traffic, apart from the wireless service provider's macro base stations, thus increasing the overall cell throughput and improving the user experience.
Small cells are expected to enable significant increases in the overall throughput of a macro-cell and thus possibly increasing the overall spectrum efficiency of the respective macro-cell. Small cells may also be able to assist in handling excess data traffic, including M2M traffic, apart from the wireless service provider's base stations, thus lessening the load on the base station and improving performance for the user.